This invention relates to an agricultural implement and, more particularly, to a floating row-crop cultivator which is attached to a prime mover, such as a tractor.
In an agricultural operation, it is of particular importance to cultivate the land to loosen or break up the soil about growing crops for the purpose of killing weeds and modifying the moisture retention of the soil. Many crops such as sugar beets, soy beans and the like, are planted in very strict, straight rows. Typically a cultivator is operated along the rows to till the ground between adjacent crop rows, which, in the case of sugar beets, are approximately 22 inches apart, but may be closer together or farther apart depending on specific agricultural conditions.
One particular problem associated with sugar beets and similar crops is that the seed does not have a high rate of germination. As a result, the seed must be planted in excess of the number of plants that are desired to obtain a sufficient yield. Oftentimes, however, two or more plants come up too close together. In the case of sugar beets, which can grow to be quite large, 10 to 12 inches in girth, the plants must then be thinned out so that there is enough space for adequate growth.
When germination of the sugar beets has occurred, a cultivator is operated between the rows of crop to mulch the soil between the rows and eliminate the weeds there-between, especially those weeds growing close to the row of small beets. To permit rapid thinning of the plants, the cultivator when operated also leaves an uncultivated block of soil projecting upward from the general field level where the seeds are growing. Thereafter, a manual laborer working with a garden hoe or the like can thin the plants by dragging the hoe laterally through the block. The narrower the block left by the cultivator, the quicker and easier it is for the laborer to draw the hoe through the block to thin the crop. Since a thin block permits the laborer to do more work, a cultivator which operates to leave narrow blocks for the crop is desirable in that productivity of the laborer is increased because more acres can be thinned in a given length of time. This is especially important in the case of sugar beets where the field should be cultivated a minimum of three times.
Row-crop cultivators presently employed have to be operated at a relatively low speed to achieve thin blocks of soil. In the case of sugar beets, these blocks are preferably about 13/4 inches wide and 3/4 to 1 inch high. To achieve this configuration for the soil block, the tractor, when using a conventional row-crop cultivator, can only operate at a speed of between approximately 3/4 and 11/2 miles per hour. Otherwise, the cultivator has a tendency to operate erratically whereby the cultivator moves laterally relative to the crop rows and either makes the blocks too large or cuts through the blocks and destroys the crop.